this really wasn't a guide bashing thread.... we know there are good and bad in everything we deal with..... I think guides are a NEEDED entity in hunting...many people just cant get the experience needed for some types of hunts.. even if they do sometimes lease up way too much good hunting land in some areas...thus cutting out the local guy who used to hunt many of those places. No way a local guy can compete with a guy who is writing off HUGE $$$ on his taxes for leasing the thousands of acres of hunting land.

I've gone on guided snow goose hunts for the past 5 years. 2-3 hunts each year. There are always 8-10 guns plus 1 or 2 guides with guns. Everyone shoots. Isn't the entire purpose of the spring "conservation" season to help "conserve" the waterfowl habitat by reducing the snow goose population as much as possible? The more birds that die the better. I don't have a problem at all with my guides pulling the trigger. Typically they only shoot into large tolls and generally at the far away birds.

And they've shot enough geese in the past 10 years that they couldn't care less about a band. If we do drop a band, unless it's clear who shot it (a single or a pair) we simply throw a bunch of empty hulls into a hat, and draw hulls. Whoever has the "red" hull (or whatever color we say is the winner) gets the band. At the end of the day the band isn't why we are out there. It's great fun with friends and again, it's conservation season...

a true hunter wants to shoot his owns birds...not get in a picture of other peoples birds... those guys are just hacks and wanna be's..........I am sorry MOST clients suck.... but id be hard pressed to find a guide that could outshoot me, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in competition with a guy I am paying!!!!!!!! I am confused why an unsafe, inconsiderate, slob client makes it ok and or NECCSSARY for the guide to kill all or most of the birds.

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Like I said previously, i'd wait until all client guns were empty before I would shoot. I alway kept my birds "separate and identifiable", as well as clients birds, ....as required by law.

As you could tell from the guide's reaction, hunting with people that you have absolutely no idea how they were raised, or trained to handle a gun can be scary........... reason enough to charge $$$.

No refunds. Having a guided Duck hunt, annual leases and day leases do not guarantee the harvest of game. Hunting and waterfowl movement is very unpredictable. We do not have tame animals and do not have a high fence operation. …Jay Cranford

bull,
The fact that in the spring CO there is no bag or possession limit makes separating the birds a non issue. These guys are emptying 12 shot extension tubes into flocks of thousands of birds in range. Nobody knows who shot what.

I know some outfitters got popped this year during duck season for not having each duck limit separated and tagged however. Looks like they're starting to push the tagging issue now. (during regular season)

bull,
The fact that in the spring CO there is no bag or possession limit makes separating the birds a non issue. These guys are emptying 12 shot extension tubes into flocks of thousands of birds in range. Nobody knows who shot what.

I know some outfitters got popped this year during duck season for not having each duck limit separated and tagged however. Looks like they're starting to push the tagging issue now. (during regular season)

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I understand. But my personal experience was pre conservation order seasons.

No refunds. Having a guided Duck hunt, annual leases and day leases do not guarantee the harvest of game. Hunting and waterfowl movement is very unpredictable. We do not have tame animals and do not have a high fence operation. …Jay Cranford

We used a guide last year, which kind of took away from the experience a little. I paid quite a bit extra this year for the guides field, decoys and call. I love waterfowl hunting, but don't live in an area where I would utlizie 5,000 decoys, etc. I know I am more of a shooter than hunter in this situation, but my family really enjoys it and we look forward to the meat. I have been hunting & fishing for about 35 years now and there good guides, bad guides, good fellow hunters and bad fellow hunters. If you leave home to hunt or fish a lot of the time someone is helping you whether you are paying for it or not. Hunters helping hunters is good thing.